STRONG H V P

STATE OF TASMANIA v HANNAH VICTORIA PAIGE STRONG    5 NOVEMBER 2020

COMMENTS ON PASSING SENTENCE                                                                PEARCE J

 Hannah Strong, you plead guilty to making a false statutory declaration. On 17 June 2019 you became aware that a man with whom you had recently commenced a relationship, was alleged to have assaulted his former partner and damaged her property earlier on that day. You attended the police station with the man. You mentioned to a police officer that you had been out woodcutting with him that morning, at a time when the assault was alleged to have occurred. Four days later, on 21 June 2019, you went to the police station and made a statutory declaration to that same effect. You did so after having been warned that it was an offence to make a false statutory declaration. You now admit that what you declared to be true was not.

Your relationship with the man ended soon afterwards. On 5 July 2019 you went to the police and told the truth. You made a second statutory declaration in which you admitted that you were not with him at the time of the alleged assault. In a police interview conducted on 3 January 2020 you confirmed that your first declaration was false, that you knew it to be false when it was made, and that your intention was to give your then partner a false alibi.

You were 18 when this offence was committed. You are now 20. You have no prior convictions of any nature. At this stage of your life you were going through a difficult period for a range of reasons. You developed some mental health problems. You have shown during your life the capacity for stable employment but you have now stopped work because you are shortly to have a baby. Your mental health is now stable. You are in a good relationship, in stable accommodation and have support from your partner’s family.

When you made your second statutory declaration, and in your police interview, you explained that the man had repeatedly requested you to lie, and that you felt pressure to comply, even though you did not want to and you knew it was wrong. He told you that he would blame you if he went to prison and would kill himself. Your conduct was also influenced by your fear of him from what you had been told by others of his abusive nature. He was a few years older than you. Those assertions are not disputed by the State and I will sentence you on that basis. The charges against the man were withdrawn, but not because of the falsity of your initial declaration.

It is in your favour that you have pleaded guilty and I am satisfied that you now appreciate the seriousness of what you did and you want to make amends.

Making a false declaration is a serious matter. It undermines the law, and has the potential to bring the justice system into disrepute. In this case, some police time was wasted, but you told the truth without an inordinate delay. For those reasons I order that a conviction be recorded. Given your age and good prospects I will otherwise adjourn the proceedings for 18 months and order your release on you giving an undertaking to be of good behaviour for that period. The effect of that order is that if you comply there will be, other than the conviction, no further consequence. On the other hand, if you do not comply you may be called upon to re-appear and be re-sentenced.